Propylene production will emerge as a key priority of Iran's growing petrochemical industry and a significant volume of the 24-million-ton methanol capacity would be transformed into propylene as a feedstock for complementary industries
Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi, deputy head of the National Petrochemical Company said Sunday presently no country can compete with Iran's potential and capacity for petrochemical development. "Special emphasis has been laid in the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2011-2015) to develop this sector."
He, however, noted that "due to shortage of propylene, downstream and complementary industries have been unable to function as expected."
Most chemical industries depend on propylene rather than being ethylene-based, the NPC official was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.
He reaffirmed the need of the growing petrochemical market for propylene and said 24 million tons of methanol will enter the market in the next five years from Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province and other plants across the Persian Gulf. Five million tons of this product is currently produced inside the country.
